I'm looking for some suggestions on what would be the best liquid to use to increase the traction of our outdoor asphalt track here in Cancun, Mexico. It is a relatively smooth outdoor basketball court that has a deteriorating red paint on it. We try to sweep the dust off but still have spin out issues with pan cars and open wheel 2 wheel drive cars. In the USA we used sugar dissolved in water, Orange Crush, and Coca-Cola. I have a bug sprayer to apply it with. Just need to know what would give us the best results for our foam tired and rubber tired RC cars.

I'm looking for some suggestions on what would be the best liquid to use to increase the traction of our outdoor asphalt track here in Cancun, Mexico. It is a relatively smooth outdoor basketball court that has a deteriorating red paint on it. We try to sweep the dust off but still have spin out issues with pan cars and ope wheel 2 wheel drive cars. In the USA we used sugar dissolved in water, Orange Crush, and Coke-Cola. I have a bug sprayer to apply it with. Just need to know what would give us the best results for our foam tired and rubber tired RC cars.

We start off by blowing the track off with a decent leaf blower,then using a combination of grape soda /grape juice, spray the track with a pressure sprayer.
works pretty well here ....

Living in Cancun we are limited in what we have to use. No Mountain Dew, no grape or orange sodas. Today I tried Coke and it worked pretty well. The Coke here is sweetened with natural products instead of the synthetics used in the USA. Therefore it has a better taste. At least that's what the tourists say. I'm use to it after 5 years and don't know the difference cause we can't get the stuff sold in the USA. Anywho........for the first time ever my Pro10 pan car could get hooked up to the track. It was a mild day with lots of cloud cover and temps in the mid 80's without much humidity for here. I had to keep reapplying it whenever I noticed an area where the car started to swap ends. I would like to try something more longer lasting if I can come up with the ingredients here.

I would prefer to use something non-carbonated so when I shake it up to mix in other ingredients it won't foam up. Guess I'll stick to water and sugar and try syrup if I can get it to mix with the water.

I would prefer to use something non-carbonated so when I shake it up to mix in other ingredients it won't foam up. Guess I'll stick to water and sugar and try syrup if I can get it to mix with the water.

The best mix is

5gal. of water
5lb of sugar
1 bottle of any kind of cheap sugary soda

Put this in a lawn spay bottle and lightly spray the track.

All sugary sodas have chemicals in it that prevent the sugar from crystallizing when the water evaporates.

Contrary to popular belief the sugar water spray is not really there for traction. It just keeps the dust and sand down allowing the tire to grip the surface better. In fact if you put it on too heavy it can cause traction problems. When you spray you want to see a slight darkening of the asphalt with no wet spots.

This is the best and easiest formula several clubs in our area use it.
1gal of fruit punch concentrate
1-2liter orange soda (we use orange crush)
1 gal of water
Mix and spray
I recomend thin coats out of your sprayer.
The club in Visalia has a 12v pump mounted on a ag tank on a wagon with 4 spray nossels that spary's a 8' path that is very even and uniformed the best setup I've seen!
This mixture is so sticky your shoes will stick to the track the cars love it.

We tried the spray out again yesterday. It was sunny and hot. The track was too hot to stand on in bare feet. I used a mix of Coca Cola, and sugar. The traction was much improved and longer lasting. We ran my Pro10 pan car with green rears and blue fronts and also used it as a camera car for my Hero HD2. I'll post links to the video when I'm finished editing it. Next we will try molasses and water as that would be less expensive and perhaps better. I've also built a sprayer so that we can just walk the track one lap and spray the whole thing evenly.
Thanks so much for all the suggestions.

We tried the spray out again yesterday. It was sunny and hot. The track was too hot to stand on in bare feet. I used a mix of Coca Cola, and sugar. The traction was much improved and longer lasting. We ran my Pro10 pan car with green rears and blue fronts and also used it as a camera car for my Hero HD2. I'll post links to the video when I'm finished editing it. Next we will try molasses and water as that would be less expensive and perhaps better. I've also built a sprayer so that we can just walk the track one lap and spray the whole thing evenly.
Thanks so much for all the suggestions.

What ever you use as traction don't forget to add a few table spoons of Pinesol
to keep ants, mosquitoes, and wasps away.

Formula R/C uses Grape or Root Beer. Pre-clean surface with leaf blower or broom. Apply in even coats. It holds up for the full day of racing. We've hit track temps pushing 140deg, and have had no problems with it. The more sugar content you can find in the soda the better.

Adding just one bottle of cheap sugary soda pop is critical. It eliminates the possibility of sugar crystallizing as the water evaporates due to chemicals present in the soda pop. These chemicals prevent the large amounts of sugar in the soda from crystallizing and precipitating to the bottom of the bottle when its sitting on the shelf. I think pancake syrup has the same chemicals for the same reasons.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Powered By: vBulletin v3.9.2.1